January 3rd, 2015 - Saturday
Wow. That was the first time I wrote 2015. :) I really want to do better about keeping a record (journal) of our family happenings. I guess because I have so many different options of how to do this (typing vs. hand writing, pictures, videos, etc.) it’s been hard for me to really go at it - at least writing stuff down. Anyways, I couldn’t go on to do another thing tonight before I took the time to write down my day today.
As I laid Madelyn down in her crib and Caleb was already in bed (all by 7:40PM Utah time!) I couldn’t help but stop and say a prayer right then to thank my Heavenly Father for how today went. I told Him, “Now, today could have gone SO much worse, but I thank thee that it didn’t.” :)
Our day started at 4:15am NC time (2:15am UT time). We left my parents house by 5:15am and got to the airport in good time. We had SO much stuff between Kirk, me, and Brooks. (Brooks flew to Utah with us on the same flight so he could help us with the kiddos. He starts at BYU on Monday with Kirk!)
Fun story: Kirk and Brooks went through the security metal detector before me and I was stuck behind holding Madelyn in her blanket trying to get a part of the stroller to pop off. I couldn’t do it with one hand so I had to lay her in one of the bins they use to put stuff in to go through the x-ray machine. Haha, the security person with a worried face was like “uhh, um, okay” but there was no other way for me to get the tray off the stroller and we were holding up the line! Ha. Just a fun fact that Madelyn has been laid down inside an airport security bin. I wanted to throw that story in here.
We got to the gate at 6:20ish. I went to the bathroom to nurse Madelyn. Kirk changed Caleb’s diaper and clothes out at the gate. I finished just in time to preboard. Miracle of miracles….it ended up that we had a WHOLE row...6 seats...to the 5 of us...when we were thinking we would only have 3 for the 5 of us. Because of this they let us bring Madelyn’s carseat on. That was AWESOME. I could lay her in it and she slept in it really well and that gave me two hands to help with Caleb.
Caleb did well at first going between Brooks and Kirk and looking out the window. Madelyn was in her carseat in 21A by the window, I was sitting in 21B, my backpack sat on 21C until I had to put it under the seat. Kirk sat in 21D by the isle, Caleb sort of was in 21E and Brooks was by the other window in 21F.
Thankfully I was able to get a little nap at the beginning of the flight...I was woken up by Caleb crying non stop with his raspy voice. (He has had a few green boogers the past couple of days as well as diarrhea and has been teething like CRAZY...and has been functioning on less sleep because of the teething...all a very bad mixture for my little 17 month old.) I tried to just ignore it and hope Kirk could calm him down...but Kirk tossed his phone at me to get my attention and help. So he gave me Caleb and I worked on getting him to sleep for about 15-20 minutes and MIRACLE...he finally fell asleep. He was SOO tired. He ended up with the whole top part of his body on my lap and his legs in the open seat by the isle. About 3 minutes after he fell asleep Madelyn woke up! Ah. I could NOT wake Caleb up...I didn’t know what time it was. I tried calling to Kirk quietly...nothing. I threw a blanket at/on him...nothing. I threw a burp cloth at his head that landed on his shoulder...nothing. Then thankfully after my failed attempts and Madelyn starting to slowly get more worked up a 10-12 year old boy was walking by (miracle). I stopped him and asked him to wake up Kirk. He looked at me weird and with a face that says “are you sure?” He poked Kirk a few times...nothing. I told him to just shove him! So he pushed him a little bit harder and Kirk finally woke up and gave the kid a dirty/confused look. I felt so bad for him but I quickly sent him on his way with a thank you! I got Kirk’s attention and pulled Madelyn out of the car seat and gave her to him. I asked what time it was...and of course it was time to feed her! Ah. I was still not going to wake up Caleb but Madelyn was getting antsy. I quickly decided that I could nurse her while Caleb was on my lap. He had positioned himself just right that I could do it (miracle!). So yes...if you are wondering...I felt like super mom. Haha. I even had Kirk take a picture. Kirk started to fall back asleep, but thankfully I got his attention before he did and said, “Don’t you dare fall asleep again while I have these two on my lap!” Ha, oh man. He smiled and realized that it wouldn’t be a good idea for him to fall asleep on me.
I finished nursing Madelyn and gave her back to Kirk. I closed my eyes for maybe a minute and then Caleb woke up! :( Dang it. At least he got a 20-30ish minute nap. He was so much happier! Thank heavens! Now, not too long after all this Madelyn decided to have one of the hugest dirty diapers. So she leaked a little out onto her clothes. Could have been worse though! And good thing I brought an extra pair of clothes (another super mom point). ;)
The rest of the flight was pretty good. We all played musical chairs throughout the 4 hour flight. We were all sitting in different seats when we landed. Haha. Right as we landed Caleb did a doosy in his diaper...but we had to wait until we were parked at the gate for Kirk to go back to the bathroom and change him. Good thing I brought an extra pair of clothes for Caleb too! ;) One more point! Now...I don’t like bringing extra clothes for the kids because it takes up precious room in the bag of their food, toys, etc. but I know it is pretty much a necessity… *sigh*
We arrived in Utah around 9:20ishAM. Oh, funny story. As we are sitting there waiting to get off the plane one of the flight attendants comes on the overhead microphone and says something like, “A guitar and stroller have just arrived at the gate…” Brooks sort of takes in a breath and gets tense for a second...a few seconds later he laughed. He thought the lady had said, “A guitar has arrived and has just been stolen…” BAHAHAHAHA. Oh man. I am laughing out loud right now remembering this. Haha. He clarified with me though that she said stroller. I thought it was interesting that they even said that over the intercom. They have never done that before. Side note: Brooks was a little worried overall about his guitar...we had showed him the video “United Breaks Guitars”. Check out the video. It’s pretty funny!
Well, we got our bags, squished everything into Kirks’ parents minivan (miracle) and we were off to Provo. Phew. What a morning! After dropping Brooks off at new student orientation and getting some lunch, we all went to bed from 1PM to 5PM (with a little break to feed Madelyn in there. Oh, and Kirk didn’t get to sleep until 2:20ish because he was so kind to take Madelyn and be awake with her until she fell asleep! THANK YOU HUBBY! 10 points for you!) ;) Oh, it felt so good to sleep after going to bed past Midnight and waking up at 4am.
Kirk went to get Brooks around 5 and drop his stuff off at his apartment and then they came back and we had dinner...a dinner that I had prepared with a crying Caleb at my legs. It just goes to show how out of it Caleb is when he is just all out of sorts - even after a 4 hour nap! Thankfully he calmed down a little, ate some dinner, took a bath, and was in bed by 7:30pm! Another miracle.
I trimmed Brooks’ hair quickly before Kirk took him to go grocery shopping (for us too). Madelyn is sleeping soundly in her crib next to my bed and I am just overcome with thankfulness to my Heavenly Father for a day that was so good...or at least could have been a lot worse. ;)
Love,
Kristine B. Perry
